I have always been most interested in the Byzantine Royal Family or Families when it comes to royal and European history. I suppose it's because of the fact that I'm Greek and they, as Greeks, dominated European culture and history for more than 500 years. They were, certainly, the most revered, powerful, wealthy, and illustrious monarchy in Europe and The Middle East during the Middle Ages. I was wondering if anyone else shared my interest in the Byzantines, as I most certainly find them perhaps some of the most fascinating figures of medieval and world history.

It will likely be no surprise to anyone who's heard my comments concerning the Greek Royal Family of modern days that I am no fan of the Oldenburgs, butI have always been most interested in the Byzantine Royal Family or Families, their predecessors, when it comes to royal and European history. I suppose it's because of the fact that I'm Greek and they, as ethnic Greeks (rather than Danish pretenders), dominated European culture and history for more than 500 years. They were, certainly, the most revered, powerful, wealthy, and illustrious monarchy in Europe and The Middle East during the Middle Ages. I was wondering if anyone else shared my interest in the Byzantines, as I most certainly find them perhaps some of the most fascinating figures of medieval and world history.

grecka

01-31-2005 06:52 PM

Now, back to the topic of the Byzantines. Here's a short history of the empire and of the royals of Byzantium.

It is not possible to effectually distinguish between the later empire in Rome and the Byzantine empire centered around Constantinople. For the Byzantines were the Roman Empire, not simply a continuation of it in the East. The capital city, Constantinople, had been founded as the capital of Rome by the Emperor Constantine, but a uniquely Greek or Byzantine character to the Roman Empire can be distinguished as early as Diocletian. When Rome was seized by Goths, this was a great blow to the Roman Empire, but it didn't effectively end it. Although Rome was under the control of foreigners who themselves claimed to be continuing the empire, the Byzantine empire continued as before, believing themselves to be the Roman Empire.

Over the centuries, however, Byzantium evolved into a very different civilization. The eastern Empire had always had a predominately Greek character, but the Byzantines through the course of the first millenium AD had to deal with cultural influences and political threats from European cultures, Asian cultures and, primarily, Islam after the seventh century.

Through the later Middle Ages, however, Byzantium both gradually declined politically and became more isolated from the rest of Europe. While the last centuries of the European Middle Ages saw the consolidation of the idea of Europe and the incorporation of European cultures into a larger, overarching European monoculture, Byzantium was left out of this new European concept. By the beginning of the modern period, when "Europe" had become a solid, cultural idea, Byzantine had come to an end with the Ottoman conquest of Constantinople.

Byzantine history, then, stretches in a continuous line from the latter centuries of Rome to the very beginning of the modern period. It transmited the classical culture of Greece and Rome but it also developed a unique historical and cultural character based on a synthesis of Greek, Roman, European, and Islamic elements.

grecka

01-31-2005 06:53 PM

Reign of Justinian I

Most historians consider the reign of Justinian (527-565) as marking a significant break with the Roman past. This is difficult to support—Justinian not only considered himself the emperor of all of Rome, including the territories occupied by the Goths, but also spoke Latin as his primary language.

After the fall of Rome, the Byzantine emperors never gave over the idea of reconquering Rome. They did, however, take a lesson from the fall of Rome and all throughout the fifth century, the Byzantine emperors wrought a series of administrative and financial reforms. They produced the single most extensive corpus of Roman law in 425 and reformed taxation dramatically. Most importantly, however, they did not entrust their military to German generals—this had been the downfall of the Latin portion of the empire. They could not, however, maintain a powerful military—the loss of territory in the west had dramatically shrunk their financial resources.

Justinian was perhaps the last emperor that seriously entertained notions of reconquering the west—the institution of the western emperor fell permanently vacant in 476 and the Byzantine emperors claimed as theirs. His expeditions against Italy, however, failed. Although he conquered North Africa and retook Italy from the Ostrogoths, this Gothic War drained the Byzantine Empire of much-needed resources. Most importantly, the Gothic War devestated Italy economically. The economic destruction of Italy was so total that it destroyed Italian urban culture for centuries. The great cities of Rome and her allies would be abandoned as Italy would fall into a long period of backwardness. The impoverishment of Italy and the drain on Byzantium made it impossible for the Byzantines to hold Italy—only three years after the death of Justinian, the Italian territories fell into the hands of another Germanic tribe, the "Long Beards," or Langobardi (Lombards).

Justinian, however, is most famous for the body of laws that he promulgated—the Corpus iuris civilis. This was not only a great legal achievement in codifying Roman law, it was also the first systematic attempt to synthesize Roman law and jurisprudence with Christianity. Although Byzantium would eventually fade in influence, from the eleventh century onwards, Justinian's Corpus iuris civilis became the foundation of all European law and legal practice (except for England).

Justinian is also credited for founding Byzantine architecture with his building of the Santa Sophia in Constantinople and the church of San Vitale in Ravenna, Italy. The Santa Sophia continued the Roman tradition of building domes, the architecture of the Roman basilica, but it was carried out on a scale unheard of in earlier centuries. In fact, it would remain the largest dome ever built until Sinan built the Selimye Mosque in the sixteenth century. Both Santa Sophia and San Vitale are decorated inside with a uniquely Byzantine mosaic style, a style that was to characterize Byzantine architecture for nearly another millenium. It is a style that fuses both Roman mosaic realism and an otherworldly, almost abstract use of simple forms and dramatic colors.

The most serious and lasting mistake of Justinian's reign was the persecution of heretical Christians. The eastern empire had always been distinguished from the western empire by the proliferation of religions and metaphysical speculation as a characteristic of religions. This did not substantially change with the advent of Christianity. Although non-Christians were stamped, the eastern Christians engaged in high intellectual specuation on theological and Christological questions with a fervor unmatched in the West. You might say that the model of Christian belief in the east was more mystical and philosophical while the Christian belief in the west was more practical and obedience-centered. This meant that a number of competing doctrines circulated in the Greek-centered areas of the Byzantine world. One of these doctrines, the Monophysite doctrine, was so serious a challenge to the western church that it was declared heretical.

The Monophysite doctrine arose from Christological speculation. What was the nature of Christ? This was one of the dominant speculative questions in the eastern empire from the fifth century onwards. The Monophysites argued that Christ had one and only nature (mono=one, physis=nature) and that nature was divine—the orthodox Christian church held that Christ had a double nature, that of divinity and humanity. In the latter decades of the fifth century, the Byzantine Emperor declared himself to be a Monophysite—this estranged the Byzantines from the Roman Pope.

But Justinian—and his father before him, Justin I—needed the support of the Pope in order to retake Italy. So both Justin and Justinian renounced Monophysite belief and were reincorporated into the Latin church. But Justinian went even further—to demonstrate his commitment to Latin Christianity, he began a series of oppressive persecutions of Monophysites in Syria and Egypt. This would have a profound effect on later history—the Monophysite Christians, horribly persecuted by the Byzantines, welcomed Muslim conquerors with open arms based on their promise to tolerate their religion

grecka

01-31-2005 06:54 PM

The Byzantines and Islam

Almost all of Byzantine energy over the next centuries would be focussed on Islam. The Muslims very quickly conquered Byzantine territory in Syria and Egypt largely because of disaffected populations of Christians and Jews who had been persecuted since the time of Justinian. The patriarchal caliphs and later the Umayyad caliphs, however, really had their sights on Byzantine territory—in fact, the conquest of Byzantium itself. They easily conquered all the Persian territories, but they could never quite conquer the heart of Byzantium itself. In 670, they attempted this conquest with a large fleet; in 717, they tried again with a land and sea operation against the city.

This operation, however, turned the tide away from the Muslims. Under the emperor Leo the Isaurian (717-741), the Muslim invasion was turned back and the Byzantines began to hold their own against Islamic incursions.

As the centralized Islamic government under the caliph began to disintegrate in the ninth century, the Byzantines began to reassert their dominance over Asia Minor. By the middle of the tenth century, they reconquered most of Syria and were once again and powerful and influential empire stretching from Greece to Arabia.

In 1071, however, the Seljuk Turks conquered the Byzantine army at Manzikert in Asia Minor—after this victory, the Seljuks quickly overran all of Byzantine territory in the east.

grecka

01-31-2005 06:55 PM

Byzantine Christianity

Byzantine Christianity was a substantially different religion and cultural practice than Latin Christianity. One of its predominant characteristics was the role of the emperor in matters of faith. The Latin church had battled emperors for control of the church and with the disintegration of centralized authority in Europe and the proliferation of European kingdoms, the primacy of the Pope in matters of faith was relatively solidified.

The Byzantines, however, inherited the Roman idea that the emperor was near divinity and practiced a form of Christianity where enormous ecclesiastical and theological authority was vested in the emperor. This would eventually create a permanent breach in the world of Christianity between west and east and the event that would produce this breach was the Iconoclastic controversy.

The Iconoclastic theologians believed that the worship of images, or icons, was a fundamentally pagan belief. Products of human hands should not be worshipped, they argued, but only Christ and God should be the proper objects of veneration. The movement was inaugurated by Leo the Isaurian. It was Leo, remember, that turned the tide against the Muslim in 717. Islam is itself opposed to the worship of images, icons, and idols—one of the founding acts of Islam is Muhammad's destruction of all the idols and images in the sacred Ka'aba in Mecca. There is no doubt that the Iconoclasts were in part inspired by the religious purity of the Islamic faith. There is also little doubt that Iconoclasm would help the Byzantines regain territory conquered by the Muslims since it made Christianity more in line with the Islamic faith.

Iconoclasm, however, was fiercely opposed by the papacy which saw it as a threat not only to Latin ecclesiastical practices, but to the authority of the pope himself. When Leo's son, Constantine V even more zealously carried out the Iconoclastic program during his reign (740-775), the breach between the Latin and Byzantine church became permanent. Eventually, Iconoclasm would be abandoned in the ninth century—the breach, however, would never be healed.

The most significant result of the Iconoclastic controversy was the adoption of a strict traditionalism in the Byzantine church. The eastern church had long been characterized by speculation and innovation, but the Iconoclastic controversy was too disorienting. Almost overnight, the Byzantine church became averse to innovation and speculation. This created a more or less static religious culture and it also permanently ended the intellectual dynamism of Byzantine life.

grecka

01-31-2005 06:56 PM

Byzantine Philosophy and Culture

Perhaps the single most salient aspect of Byzantine culture was the transmission of classical culture. While classical studies, science, and philosophy largely dissipated in the Latin west, Byzantine education and philosophy still zealously pursued these intellectual traditions. It was in Byzantium that Plato and Aristotle continued to be studied and were eventually transmitted first into the Islamic world and then back into western Europe. A basic education in Byzantium consisted first of the mastery of classical Greek literature, such as Homer (largely unknown in the West during this period)—almost all of the Greek literature we have today was only preserved by the Byzantines.

Unlike Greece and Rome during the classical period or the Latin West during the Middle Ages, women actively participated in the intellectual life of the culture. While they could not attend schools, aristocratic women were often well-educated at home by tutors in literature, history, composition, and philosophy. The greatest of Byzantine writers, in fact, was the historian Anna Comnena, the daughter of the emperor Alexius. Her biography of her father is one of the greatest works of medieval historiography in existence—this includes the histories written in Europe

Byzantine culture is important because of two lines of transmission. One of line of transmission involved the exporting of classical Greek and Roman culture into Islam and, to a lesser extent, the transmission of Byzantine theological speculation into Islamic theology. The second is the transmission of Byzantine culture and religion to Slavic peoples, especially to the Russians.

We know very little about the Slavs before the Middle Ages—what we do know we only know through archaeology. As Byzantium, however, turned less of its attention towards Europe and the west, they became increasingly interested in the peoples to the north. We don't know how cultural contact was initiated between these two peoples, but sometime around 988 a Russian ruler named Vladimir converted to Byzantine Christianity. From that point onwards, the Slavs in Russia became a kind of cultural inheritor of Byzantine culture, adopting the religion, theology, some social structures, and writing from the Byzantines to the south. In many ways Russian and Slavic culture is the continuance of Byzantine culture and many Byzantine cultural practices and beliefs are still practiced among Slavs today. Russian religion, art, philosophy, and even literature, such as the writings of Chekhov and Dostoevsky, show profound influences from Byzantine culture. The Byzantine inheritance also included the sense that Byzantine culture and practice was fundamentally different from European culture and practice. This sense of Byzantine distinctiveness would also impress itself on Slavic cultures up until the present.

So close was this cultural connection, that Russians believed that they were the inheritors of the Byzantine Empire when it finally collapsed in 1453. The Russian rulers assumed the title of "Caesar," the title bestowed on Byzantine emperors—in Russian, the word is "Tsar." With the government centered in Moscow, the Russian Tsars declared Moscow to be the "third Rome," after Rome and Byzantium, and so located themselves in a cultural and historical trajectory that began with the Roman empire.

grecka

01-31-2005 07:01 PM

The Decline of the EmpireFrederick Barbarossa attempted to conquer the empire during the Third Crusade, but it was the Fourth Crusade that had the most devastating effect on the empire. Although the intent of the crusade was to conquer Egypt, the Venetians took control of the expedition, and under their influence the crusade captured Constantinople in 1204. As a result a short-lived feudal kingdom was founded (the Latin Empire), and Byzantine power was permanently weakened.

Three Byzantine successor states were left - the Empire of Nicaea, the Empire of Trebizond, and the Despotate of Epirus. The first, controlled by the Palaeologan dynasty, managed to reclaim Constantinople in 1261 and defeat Epirus, reviving the empire but giving too much attention to Europe when the Asian provinces were the primary concern. For a while the empire survived simply because the Muslims were too divided to attack, but eventually the Ottomans overran all but a handful of port cities.

The empire appealed to the west for help, but they would only consider sending aid in return for reuniting the churches. Church unity was considered, and occasionally accomplished by law, but the Orthodox citizens would not accept Roman Catholicism. Some western mercenaries arrived to help, but many preferred to let the empire die, and did nothing as the Ottomans picked apart the remaining territories.

Constantinople was initially not considered worth the effort of conquest, but with the advent of cannons, the walls, which had been impenetrable except by the Crusaders for over 1000 years, no longer offered adequate protection from the Ottomans. The Fall of Constantinople finally came after a two-month siege by Mehmed II on May 29, 1453. Mehmed II also conquered Mistra in 1460 and Trebizond in 1461. Mehmed styled himself the proper successor to the Eastern Roman Emperors and by the end of the century the Ottoman Empire had established its firm rule over Asia Minor and most of the Balkan peninsula.

The Byzantine empire was for several hundred years Christianity's great wall of defense against Islam. The empire's victory in the two giant sieges of Constantinople in the seventh and eighth centuries is arguably one of the most important events in human history, since it effectively broke the will of the Arab jihadists. Without this victory, Western Europe might gradually have been overrun by the Caliphate and eventually converted to Islam (whether or not this would have been a bad thing or a good thing is not the issue here).

In addition Byzantium played an important role in the transmission of classical knowledge to the Islamic world and to Renaissance Italy. The influence of its theologians on medieval Western thought (and especially on Thomas Acquinas) was profound, and their removal from the "canon" of Western thought in subsequent centuries has only served to impoverish the canon. Byzantium's influence on Western art and architecture is so well-known as to scarcely need mentioning. Its most lasting effect, though, lies in its spreading of Orthodoxy to surrounding peoples (the so-called "Byzantine commonwealth," a term coined by 20th century historians). Early Byzantine missionary work spread Orthodox Christianity to various Slavic peoples, and it is still predominant among the Russians and many other Slavic peoples as well as among the Greeks. Less well known is the influence of the Byzantine style of religion on the millions of Christians in Ethiopia, the Egyptian Coptic Christians, and the Christians of Georgia and Armenia. The start and end dates of the Empire's independence, 395 to 1453, are one of the traditional dates for the period of the Middle Ages. It was 1177 years from the original split of the Roman Empire under Diocletian in 284 until the fall of Trebizond in 1461; whatever the measurement, the Empire certainly lasted for over a millennium.

Warren

02-01-2005 08:40 AM

spare post PLEASE DO NOT HARD DELETE OR MOVE

grecka

02-02-2005 12:08 AM

Here are a few examples of Byzantine royal architecture. Some of the pics are of buildings which are over a millenia old and have been through countless conflicts and wars.

This is the church of Hagia Sophia (pronounced aya-sofeea and meaning Holy Wisdom). It was built during the reign of Justinian I around 600 AD and as such is around 1400 years old. At the time of its construction, it was the largest building in the world, had the largest and widest dome, and was the greatest church in the world. It's since been turned into a mosque and since then, a museum. Many mosaics the Byzantine emperors commissioned to glorify themselves still adorn many of the walls.

This is a reconstructed portion of the walls of Constantinople. The walls were originally built by Constantine and were the strongest walls of any city in the medieval world. They were penetrated only twice in over a thousand years, once by the Crusaders who stormed the city during the 4th Crusade, and second, by the Ottoman Turks, who conquered the city in 1453 and claimed it as their capital. The city is now known as Istanbul and is the largest city in Muslim Turkey and perhaps, the whole Middle East (except maybe Cairo) with around 10 million inhabitants in and around the city.

This is a small chapel at Mystras, a site near ancient Sparta. It's around 1000 years old. In the later period of Byzantine royal history, from around 1250-1450, Mystras was the unofficial royal residence of the last Byzantine royal family, the Paleologus. The last emperor, Constantine XI, was of this line. He died childless and unmarried in Constantinople on May 29, 1453, when Constantinople was taken by the Turks. His head was cut off and paraded around the city on a pike; his body has never been discovered.

Read here for more info regarding the Byzantine Empire, kingdom and crusaders.

abir

02-18-2005 03:59 PM

Interesting thread :) .
Simple thing to start with is the origin of the empire. The ancient roman empire was divided into two parts: eastern and western. The eastern was kept subject to successors of Constantine and the capital was at Byzantium or Constantinope. In the other side the word Byzantine refered to the eastern of the ancient roman empire.

The reign of the first Christian emperor, Constantine, is often taken to mark the beginning of a new period in the history of the Roman Empire. Certainly there were significant changes: Christians come to play a more important and more public role in the life of the empire; Christian concerns come to dominate public discourse; the capital was moved from Rome to Constantinople (Byzantium). Yet there were also significant points of continuity: the legal and political structure remained largely the same, the economy and the military were largely the same. Even the form of Christianity in the Empire acquired significant aspects of Greco-Roman culture. The Byzantine Empire would last until the city of Constantinople was finally conquered by Ottoman Turks in 1453.

Constantine was born in a city that is in modern day Serbia, and today is called Nis.

This is also an interesting link.

Enjoy!

Toledo

12-11-2005 09:54 AM

Let's start the time machine with the past before Byzantium, the original Greeks Royal Houses that somehow look so modern-like when you read about them. To understand Byzatium you need to see where that fascinating culture evolved from, the even more fascinating greek culture.
This website presents the original Royal Greek Houses them in a very organized way, scroll down to see the names of the major Houses:http://www.timelessmyths.com/classical/houses.html

One ancient Greek Royal House that I have failed to find informatin about is the Athaneids. I read about it in the Robert Graves book, The White Goddess, and they are mentioned as one of the Houses that founded Greece, but it's a foot note mention. There is more on the other clan, the Perseids, than on the Athaneids.

My own foot note: Robert Graves is the author who wrote the book turned into two TV series called I Claudius.

And here is the best site ever to find one of the most complete and extensive research on Byzantine Genealogy. Even though is a Spanish site, the lineages are on PDF in the form of family trees, the names are easy to understand, so happy reading. I hope that helps your quest an all things Byzantine:

The Nicolas Homar family has a great site also dedicated to find extensive PDF family trees on most Royals, they include everything like side mistresses and the kids they gave the Royals. I've never seen such a detailed work. From what I read, the head of the family, Mr. Nicolas Homar, has been doing this collection on Royal Genealogy online research since the 1990's and his son Bartolome Homar, the webmaster, has helped him to put it online. Quite a family!
Here is the main page, juts click on the blue World map to get to the data: http://www.homar.org/

Toledo

12-11-2005 10:48 AM

:) And this is extra:
Some years ago I found at the local library an architectural book that had pictures on Royal buildings that were never made, like the Orianda Palace in Crimea. One of the photos had the floor plan for what was to be a new Greek Royal palace to be built in the 19th Century :eek: right on the Acropolis around the ruins! The monstrous project never came to be, but I found the floor plans on a German site and they are worth printing since I have not come across any other match on that forgotten piece of modern Royal Greek history:

Floor plan for the project from above: the new palace is shown surrounding the ruins all over. This was the picture I saw in a book that got me to track down the rest. Thanks to the internet (thank you Bill Gates!) I was able to find the rest years and years apart from when I saw that picture in a library book.

Together they must capture the story of a vast empire that, ruled from its fabled capital of Constantinople (modern-day Istanbul), encompassed at its most extensive a long belt of North Africa, Egypt, the Holy Land, Italy and Greece, large parts of the Balkans and the southern regions of Spain. They must capture a sense of its shifting fortunes as it waxed and waned, diminished by plague, ransacked by barbarians, besieged by Muslims or enlarged and enriched by plundering conquests. They must convey its colourful, turbulent and often sensational history as a succession of 90 emperors fought (often viciously) for power, as well as the richness and diversity of its artistic output as it subsumed myriad cultures into its melting pot. Lastly the artefacts must highlight the power and importance of its spiritual vision as, with the conversion of Constantine the Great to Christianity on his deathbed, the religion that he had so radically legalised in 313 spread.

Byzantium certainly has its brutal and barbarous moments. Here are stepmothers boiled alive in overheated baths, an emperor with his nose and tongue cut off to prevent him ever ruling again (he survived and returned to power wearing a golden nose patch and using an interpreter to speak) and an empress who, in her determination for power, blinds her own son in the same purple chamber in which she had given birth to him 26 years earlier.

principessa

08-25-2009 06:07 AM

Historical royal families of the HRR

At Kloster Lorch guided tours about the life of Queen Irene of Byzanz (daughter-in-law of Barbarossa) are offered.

Today is actually the day the Roman Empire broke into two parts (ruled by two different Emperors) for good. After Theodosius the Great - the last Emperor who ruled over the entire Roman Empire - passed away on January 17 395, his sons and co-Emperors became sole Emperors in the Eastern and Western parts. If you are a history fun like me, you can read a bit more here.